Had a chat with Simon Bradbury, the lead programmer of Caesar 3 and now head of Firefly Studios, to find answers to questions we have wondered about for years! Hope you like it! If you want to buy Caesar 3 (or any other game) AND support the channel, use this GOG referral link: af.gog.com/game/caesar_3?as=1715648857 Thank you!
dammit! i wish i could raided your interview with him just to ask.. WTF HAPPENED WITH STRONGHOLD!... why they embraced/changed such core aspects of it.... because some of the 'innovation' stuff of say stronghold 2 or stronghold legends just quality of life UI stuff... would be gorgeous for a stronghold 1/crusader 1 free'd from the shackles of 90's hardware limits T_T ..i mean ,those things and add a global map thing like you talked with him about ontop of that... and stronghold could border on a ultimate rts combat/city/empire management title. but the fourth wall meta crap that dominates most of the newest stronghold games i seen...urgh... it completely kills any interest from me for stronghold .. I AM SOMEONE THAT AS LATE LIKE A COUPLE MONTHS AGO TRYEED TO CELEBRATE A NEW COMP by getting old stronghold 1 crussader to work for mp with ma bro's ...but... no luck since outside of 'direct' ip set ups ...its mp software is just a fossil :/ that said... RAD INTERVIEW! ^^ cheers thanks for making it happen/putting it up love little peeks behind the curtain like this so to say!!!
Awesome Zakh. My memories of Caeser 3 will be with me forever. My Parents didn't let me play video games, and in fact only got a computer because i managed to persuade them i really needed it for school. This was really before the internet around where i lived in the middle of no where as well. Cos of this i couldn't go shops unless my parents gave me a lift, but one day my friends mum took us to the "big" city (exeter) and i saw this game and bought it on the box art (i managed to save the money from hand picking ragwort from kale on the local shoot) I took it home secretly and played it religiously whenever my parents weren't home. It was a summer i'll never forget. There was also a song i found by BT called lullaby of gaia, and i played that on a loop while playing this game, whenever i hear that song on my play list it reminds me of caeser and that summer playing it. Thanks Simon.
He tries to be humble, but you can see the pride in him when you mentioned that every game with walkers is now defined as an "Impression style City Builder"! They made history without realizing it :)
This is one of the best videos I've seen on the internet since it was invented. My GF bought me Caeser 3 when it came out and on the same day she took me to see Duran Duran in concert. We came out of the concert to discover that the car had been broken into and so had my copy of Caeser 3 (lucky thief!) , ...so I had to buy Caesar 3 again. I played it to death in the 90s along with HOMM3 and Warcraft3. Decades later, I discover GamerZakh's channel and I get to enjoy him playing this game at a level I never attained. Very very interesting to hear Simon talk about the game and realized I enjoy Zakh's videos so much I should contribute in some way. Keep up the good work!
Thank you so much, that's really kind of you to say! I'm glad you enjoyed it, I kind of just really wanted some answers to those questions we've been holding on to for so long.
When i was 16 and had my first real boyfriend i used to visit him at his parents very nice house. His younger brother introduced me to „need for speed2 on the ps1. To get me unstuck from the ps on the family’s tv in the living room, my bf showed me Caesar3 on his pc in his room…. The rest is a history of a home that has always been there for me, wherever i went. Thank you C3 and sierra
13:25 "How cetain franchises have kinda stayed and people look back upon them fondly. Why is that?" Because you and the team that made the game did an OUTSTANDING JOB! To everyone in the Caesar 3 game team - well done! You created an absolute masterpiece and a gem. The programmers, the artists, the musicians, the voice actors, everyone who worked on that game left a part of their soul in it. I still play it to this day. Thank you!
Holy shit, I'll be watching this tomorrow. I played a pirated version of C3 back in the '90s (post soviet Poland, no proper IP law, everyone was poor) and it was one of my favourite games ever (along with Settlers 2, Civ/Civ2, C&C:RA, Theme Hospital). It's great that you were able to make this interview, I gotta promote this on reddit at some point. One of the best games in history. Thank you!
This is absolutely AMAZING!!! Caesar 3 was one of the first games I ever played, and Stronghold dominated a massive part of my childhood. I never had any idea that the same man was behind both games. Thank you so much for this fantastic interview! And thank you Mr. Bradbury for all the wonderful and exciting moments, as well as the cultivation of historical interest that you gave me!
I just love how you got Simon Bradbury to do that interview! I am so happy that I can finally say what I observed for what has to be decades: For what it's worth, look at Stronghold's post-walker dynamics (Priests, Innkeepers) and at what Stronghold does with the stockpile. In Stronghold, you can see every item being brought in, processed, and stacked on square tiles. It's Caesar. The granary in Caesar 3 and the granary in Stronghold follow kind of the same dynamics. The very heart and essence is what makes those games so great-and the fact that this was realised similarly doesn't mean I am criticising any of the games, I just clearly see the evolution from Sierra to Firefly, i.e. from Caesar (3!) to Stronghold. Caesar 3 is an evolutionary cousin to Stronghold, and this fact can be seen clearly in so many regards: the heroes in Zeus/Emperor etc. follow the same basics as does the Lord in Stronghold. The walls and towers are obviously developments from C1-C2 on even. Bradbury is one of the absolute granddaddies of economical sim and strategic building.
Best game ever.. played hundreds of hours thru high school.. got the bug to play again, and the flashback to happy times was incredible. THANK YOU SIMON!
Amazing to hear about the dev himself. I was always impressed with Caesar3 and always thought the game is incredibly well designed. The fact that they made this in around 1 year makes it even more impressive. I'm also surprised that he barely remembers how forced walkers work, and the fact that it opens a whole new playstyle. And of course, I used (abused?) them a lot in my latest speedrun (Called "A Nonviolent Caesar 3 Speedrun" if you are curious). The YT algo is definitely not doing its job because I found this following a link in the description of this other video you posted more recently: "The Awesome Future Of Caesar 3 In 2024"
Love to hear some words from the lead developer. I just want to say, thank you for Ceasar 3! Since it's release until now, still playing it. Every year a mission or two, and sometimes just restart completely but never finished it. So far it just doesn't get old and I enjoy it everytime I jump back in! This time I am a bit further, 6B I think? Hopefully further this year. Cheers and thanks again!
14:40 -- The first person view in Dungeon Keeper was amazing. I thought it was a big selling point the fact you could see the dungeon you make in first person; like if you did something like this with Caesar 3 , walking as a padestrian, yes it would be worthless from a management point of view, but with correct rendering it would look AMAZING.
Man, going in first person in Dungeon Keeper was not only useful but also necessary to get the job done! Horned reaper + possession = win Even mr.bradbury had an expression like "are you sure it was useless?" but he kept to himself Great interview, enjoyed it a lot. always fun to hear the behind the scenes of unique games like ceasar III was back then
Well done interview! This guy's work marked my life... Started playing Caesar II as a kid... soo much time playing and subsequent interess in history and cities... now my working thesis is about that, and that's I wanna go with my work too =)) So nice to hear from him... And wish luck for the next stronghold (could it be more sim and less RTS? Like an improved S2? D:), because the first ones were just beyond awsome... Last: Caesar III soundtrack is amazing, but stronghold's one is just perfect, still listen to it while working. Great to know that the were done by the same guy. Brilliant!
I absolutely adored Caesar III as a child!! I played it for at least hundreds of hours on an old win 95 pc and it was the greatest. Dungeon Keeper, Civilization, Red Alert, Dune 2000, Age of Empires, I was so lucky to grow up during the golden age of RTS and some would say for shooters as well. Thanks for the interview Zakh & Mr. Bradbury!
C3 had a huge influence on me as a kid too , and a big part of my gaming life , even today i always have it installed and ready to play just in case . Thank you Simon for making this great game and thank you Zakh for making this interview .
Amazing interview with the Father of Impression Builder Style Games! Can't believe you managed to get him on an interview more than 20 years after it was released!! It's truly amazing!
Thanks for the interview. I played Caesar III back when it came out and was part of the early fan base at Heavengames as we worked to keep the excitement of it and other later games. These folks were so great at listening to us and adding new stuff. I even got to test later games. I think one revolutionary feature of Caesar III was the mapbuilder addition that allowed a significant level of fan created adventures that gave this game a great life. Another great feature was that the campaign challenge was almost perfect and so engaging. it really made playing the campaign a challenge, but not impossible. One of the best all around games in my opinion. I need to play Julius. I do play the original game occasionally for fun. On forced walker exploit. One map challenge I did for a Pharaoh contest was to see how many people just one water carrier to supply with a highest population win. I had a rough idea of what was possible, but what ended up as the winning design just blew even me away.
Awesome! Caesar II sparked a childhood obsession with history. Now I'm making a historical city builder! Brilliant interview, many thanks to Simon for taking the time.
This was such a good watch. The interview was very well done and I loved his tales and reactions :) I grew up with the Caesar, Zeus and co and loved them to pieces. The mention about the music was a great thing too, even decades later I still hum the music from Caesar 3, maybe I'll give the movie's soundtrack a try now, too!
Very nice interview ! Shows how pre 3D dimentional isometric games still thriumph today ! Whats special, depth, customization, variety, digital release more comfort to play !
Lords Of the Realm II! Dungeon Keeper! Caesar III! Whoa, I play all of them to this day! Btw, the first person mode is extremely useful in DK1- it allows you to not only fight, but also take over an imp and build stuff, claim land or explore by yourself. It's an important game mechanic- experienced players use it to speedrun missions and trivialize combat, especially in the final missions.
Thank you so much for doing this interview. Insight into the dev process for games of this era is so rare and so much of this insight is amazingly valuable. Thank you for this game, and thank you for your thoughts!
Congratulations! Been following your channel for years and you even influenced me to buy and play Caesar 3 again for days so that I could apply what I learned from your videos. I'm happy for you that you got to interview Mr. Bradbury who's work had such a big influence on you! You conducted the interview amazingly and Mr. Bradbury seemed to enjoy it as well. Thank you!
This is absolutely amazing; hopefully everyone comes on board and makes an even more improved Augustus, perhaps with added missions and lots of other buildings / mechanincs
I love this game so much :D . I've been playing Augustus like a madman lol. It really refreshed the game for me. Oh and btw Zakh, you should play C3 more often on your stream , there are tons and tons of custom maps that are really well made , some are easy some are very hard etc.
As one of my favorite game of my childhood I thank you for this video... Such an honor to see the creator of this masterpiece... Great interview, u should do more of these videos. Ty
Glad you enjoyed it! Unfortunately devs don't usually have the time to do interviews like this, especially for creators who aren't massive. I have a good relationship with Firefly because I did so much Caesar 3 and Stronghold on this channel and they got to know me through that.
That interview was fascinating. It was really cool to see the creator of one of my favourite games from childhood speak about his creation. Thank you both
Excellent interview! Congrats! It's really a rare opportunity to talk the creator of one of our favorite game. These are my three major takes that I will try to "implement" in my dev! Thank you mister Simon! - Sometimes "bugs" can be features and that's not a problem, if they improve the playability! 29:00 - About the force walker: "that's not by design... it's an edge case that can be used as an exploit.... but to be honest, I'm glad about that... a game with a few exploits it's a good thing! You as a player kind of want to exploit this, ..., you want to get the max of it, ...you want to know the tricks... I think keeping some of those exploit there is good!" - Keep the interface/interaction simple and intuitive for the sake of fun, but don't downgrade the experience! 34:00 - About giving the player a way to control the walkers: "You don't really want to make it so... if you put something and the people have to use it... the people get the feel they have to use it" - Quality is more important than quantity! 42:00 - About doing everything people "ask": "If you do everything, you end up kind of please some people but then you don't do everything well, that's the problem! It's better do do fewer things, but do them well or do them better and make something really good and strong"
I remember playing this as a kid not really understanding what was going on. First Game i ever played, guess my father chose Well. Wouldnt be surprised if this Game shaped a tiny bit of the way I think even today. The guy is awesome!
Great interview. I had not watched Ben-Hur until a few years ago, and when I went back to Caesar III, it was the first thing I saw. Not only is the music similar, but most of the cinematics recreate scenes from the movie. Not that it was plagiarism or anything, just a great reference to give the game a cinematic feel
Playing this game belongs to the best things in my life in my favourite year of 1997. Thank you forever! Edit: oh, sorry, it was 1998. Another favourite year :))
Thank you for sharing this! If you had told 9 year old me that I would one day be able to hear from one of the creators of Caesar 3 myself, I wouldn't have believed you. So surreal to hear from him talk about the industry at the time as well as about a game that really did shape alot of my interests.
Serbia was bombed in '99 for 78 days over lies. And this game that i played all day long with my friend helped get trough hard times. Thank you creator :).
I've been scrolling yt for weeks now till I saw your comment at one of the vidIQ video.. I was left wondering if I can found Malaysian utuber around then here we go.. I'm trying to make some content in yt but I'm a newbie and the grind is real.. Congratz on your journey so far sir..
If just current Firefly Studios Studios would reach Stronghold 1 and Caesar 3 level of quality. Hope they will improve and reclaim their full potential. Best Wishes, those where amazing games!
After watching this. Little would make me happier in the gaming sphere than, were it possible, if firefly could ever be in a position to acquire (or reacquire) the IP for Caesar. I’d trust these guys to pull the best bits from the entire series to make a fabulous Caesar V. Also, I’d love to see them also responsible for a C3 remaster, it would be beyond excellent! Also, more Robert Euvino making more Roman music! 😁
Legend. Please do more free maps, more bigger maps in other places (greek, partia). More bigger world map, more rival and allied cities, add the possibility to build colonies during a game (like zeus), more interaction with allied city (help to defend your city or attack other cities), conquer other cities in the name of Rome. More monuments, more tipes of troops. Take ideas from Emperor, Zeus, Pharaoh. I m a fan of all impressions city builders and expansions, i started to play Caesar III in the far 1998 and today Augustus is my favorite game !!! You are the number one. I will pay for a game like this 💎 fiero di essere italiano
Thanks! I have one video checking out Farthest Frontier. I can't commit to any playthroughs right now because I'm super busy this month, but might pick something up next month.
i love all the impressions games, except caesar 3. there was a mission which always fell apart after a couple hours of playtime. at some point i just emotionlessly took the disc out of the PC and broke it in half, just to protect myself from sinking more hours into this xD
14:44 oh someone who haven't played DK i see first person mode is how you beat most of the maps. without it you are in a nightmare. spamming grenades behind the corner attacking the enemy and controlling imps to cut off the enemy on time and reinforce proper squares well and then there's transfer creature and using a lvl 10 dragon to conquer most of the maps by solo rushing with self healing
As a kid Ceasar 3 was one of my 3 first self bought PC-games togethet with Trespasser Jurassic Park and Half Life. Trespasser and Half Life I bought used in a shabby computer store in our small German town. I really played the shit out of Caesar 3 - almost 1000 hours id guess. The other games at that time like Testdrive, Tomb Raider and so on were no match to this jewel. I am convinced to this day that this game at least partly shaped my mind. As an adult maybe 10 years Iater I discovered and enjoyed Cleopatra and Zeus. Im thrilled to learn about the modded versions of Ceasar 3. I was sceptical at first bcs of CesarIA and how it did not turn out to well, but I must admit that it really looks good. EDIT: "Self bought" means my parents bought pirated (burned) games from the neighbours kid for me for christmas before. Of course I possesed NES and SEGA Master System II games before, but as you know that aint a comparison to late 90s PC-games. Funfact: I spend my pocket money on PC-gaming magazines years before I had access to an computer, to be able to read about all this fabulous games and look at the pictures.
If I could change the walkers in any way in Caesar 3 I would give the choice to the players to spend more money in wages to keep the walkers going longer and to pay to add more workers and carts to the warehouses/docks
Had a chat with Simon Bradbury, the lead programmer of Caesar 3 and now head of Firefly Studios, to find answers to questions we have wondered about for years! Hope you like it! If you want to buy Caesar 3 (or any other game) AND support the channel, use this GOG referral link: af.gog.com/game/caesar_3?as=1715648857 Thank you!
WOW HAVEN'T WATCHED YET BUT EXCITED!
Awesome! Thank you!!!
This was so good man! Huge Kudos!
dammit! i wish i could raided your interview with him just to ask.. WTF HAPPENED WITH STRONGHOLD!... why they embraced/changed such core aspects of it.... because some of the 'innovation' stuff of say stronghold 2 or stronghold legends just quality of life UI stuff... would be gorgeous for a stronghold 1/crusader 1 free'd from the shackles of 90's hardware limits T_T ..i mean ,those things and add a global map thing like you talked with him about ontop of that... and stronghold could border on a ultimate rts combat/city/empire management title.
but the fourth wall meta crap that dominates most of the newest stronghold games i seen...urgh... it completely kills any interest from me for stronghold .. I AM SOMEONE THAT AS LATE LIKE A COUPLE MONTHS AGO TRYEED TO CELEBRATE A NEW COMP by getting old stronghold 1 crussader to work for mp with ma bro's ...but... no luck since outside of 'direct' ip set ups ...its mp software is just a fossil :/
that said... RAD INTERVIEW! ^^ cheers thanks for making it happen/putting it up love little peeks behind the curtain like this so to say!!!
This interview was quite a treat. Any chance you can do a similar interview with one of the people who worked on Zeus?
Awesome Zakh.
My memories of Caeser 3 will be with me forever. My Parents didn't let me play video games, and in fact only got a computer because i managed to persuade them i really needed it for school. This was really before the internet around where i lived in the middle of no where as well.
Cos of this i couldn't go shops unless my parents gave me a lift, but one day my friends mum took us to the "big" city (exeter) and i saw this game and bought it on the box art (i managed to save the money from hand picking ragwort from kale on the local shoot)
I took it home secretly and played it religiously whenever my parents weren't home. It was a summer i'll never forget. There was also a song i found by BT called lullaby of gaia, and i played that on a loop while playing this game, whenever i hear that song on my play list it reminds me of caeser and that summer playing it.
Thanks Simon.
He tries to be humble, but you can see the pride in him when you mentioned that every game with walkers is now defined as an "Impression style City Builder"! They made history without realizing it :)
Indeed. They set the pace for the whole industry
He's pretty fresh, innit? I mean he totally knows what he's done for the genre but doesn't give a damn about flaunting. Class.
This is one of the best videos I've seen on the internet since it was invented. My GF bought me Caeser 3 when it came out and on the same day she took me to see Duran Duran in concert. We came out of the concert to discover that the car had been broken into and so had my copy of Caeser 3 (lucky thief!) , ...so I had to buy Caesar 3 again. I played it to death in the 90s along with HOMM3 and Warcraft3. Decades later, I discover GamerZakh's channel and I get to enjoy him playing this game at a level I never attained. Very very interesting to hear Simon talk about the game and realized I enjoy Zakh's videos so much I should contribute in some way. Keep up the good work!
Hey thank you so much, I really appreciate it and I'm glad you enjoyed it!
if my gf bought me ceasar 3, i'd marry her
Please tell us that you married her!?!
How did I miss this interview a year ago?!? Amazing stuff. C3 was a huge part of my childhood and it's so cool to hear from the lead programmer.
35:00
I can hear the devs of Augustus taking notes. Thank you for this amazing interview!
Zakh is one of the most genuine people on this platform, I'm so glad you got this interview. Well done.
Thank you so much, that's really kind of you to say! I'm glad you enjoyed it, I kind of just really wanted some answers to those questions we've been holding on to for so long.
When i was 16 and had my first real boyfriend i used to visit him at his parents very nice house. His younger brother introduced me to „need for speed2 on the ps1. To get me unstuck from the ps on the family’s tv in the living room, my bf showed me Caesar3 on his pc in his room…. The rest is a history of a home that has always been there for me, wherever i went. Thank you C3 and sierra
Great interview! And finally the answer to the ultimate C3 question, the 200-300 bug at very hard was most probably not on purpose.
This is so cool. One of the greats. I'm 45 year of age and Impression Games always will have a special place.
13:25 "How cetain franchises have kinda stayed and people look back upon them fondly. Why is that?" Because you and the team that made the game did an OUTSTANDING JOB! To everyone in the Caesar 3 game team - well done! You created an absolute masterpiece and a gem. The programmers, the artists, the musicians, the voice actors, everyone who worked on that game left a part of their soul in it. I still play it to this day. Thank you!
Holy shit, I'll be watching this tomorrow.
I played a pirated version of C3 back in the '90s (post soviet Poland, no proper IP law, everyone was poor) and it was one of my favourite games ever (along with Settlers 2, Civ/Civ2, C&C:RA, Theme Hospital). It's great that you were able to make this interview, I gotta promote this on reddit at some point. One of the best games in history. Thank you!
This is absolutely AMAZING!!! Caesar 3 was one of the first games I ever played, and Stronghold dominated a massive part of my childhood. I never had any idea that the same man was behind both games. Thank you so much for this fantastic interview! And thank you Mr. Bradbury for all the wonderful and exciting moments, as well as the cultivation of historical interest that you gave me!
I just love how you got Simon Bradbury to do that interview!
I am so happy that I can finally say what I observed for what has to be decades: For what it's worth, look at Stronghold's post-walker dynamics (Priests, Innkeepers) and at what Stronghold does with the stockpile. In Stronghold, you can see every item being brought in, processed, and stacked on square tiles. It's Caesar. The granary in Caesar 3 and the granary in Stronghold follow kind of the same dynamics. The very heart and essence is what makes those games so great-and the fact that this was realised similarly doesn't mean I am criticising any of the games, I just clearly see the evolution from Sierra to Firefly, i.e. from Caesar (3!) to Stronghold. Caesar 3 is an evolutionary cousin to Stronghold, and this fact can be seen clearly in so many regards: the heroes in Zeus/Emperor etc. follow the same basics as does the Lord in Stronghold. The walls and towers are obviously developments from C1-C2 on even.
Bradbury is one of the absolute granddaddies of economical sim and strategic building.
Best game ever.. played hundreds of hours thru high school.. got the bug to play again, and the flashback to happy times was incredible. THANK YOU SIMON!
Amazing to hear about the dev himself. I was always impressed with Caesar3 and always thought the game is incredibly well designed. The fact that they made this in around 1 year makes it even more impressive.
I'm also surprised that he barely remembers how forced walkers work, and the fact that it opens a whole new playstyle. And of course, I used (abused?) them a lot in my latest speedrun (Called "A Nonviolent Caesar 3 Speedrun" if you are curious).
The YT algo is definitely not doing its job because I found this following a link in the description of this other video you posted more recently: "The Awesome Future Of Caesar 3 In 2024"
Love to hear some words from the lead developer. I just want to say, thank you for Ceasar 3! Since it's release until now, still playing it. Every year a mission or two, and sometimes just restart completely but never finished it. So far it just doesn't get old and I enjoy it everytime I jump back in! This time I am a bit further, 6B I think? Hopefully further this year. Cheers and thanks again!
I played Pharaoh mostly as a kid but I had Ceaser III(and Zues as well) and this game was definitely part of my early 2000s childhood. Thank you.
14:40 -- The first person view in Dungeon Keeper was amazing. I thought it was a big selling point the fact you could see the dungeon you make in first person; like if you did something like this with Caesar 3 , walking as a padestrian, yes it would be worthless from a management point of view, but with correct rendering it would look AMAZING.
I remember trying to do that in Caesar IV, zooming a lot.
The overall feel of the game is really different, but it was still cool to do.
Man, going in first person in Dungeon Keeper was not only useful but also necessary to get the job done!
Horned reaper + possession = win
Even mr.bradbury had an expression like "are you sure it was useless?" but he kept to himself
Great interview, enjoyed it a lot. always fun to hear the behind the scenes of unique games like ceasar III was back then
Finding forced walkers has given the game a new lease of life. My looping lugdanum is a thing of beauty!
I loooove behind the scenes material so that interview is great!
Well done interview! This guy's work marked my life... Started playing Caesar II as a kid... soo much time playing and subsequent interess in history and cities... now my working thesis is about that, and that's I wanna go with my work too =))
So nice to hear from him...
And wish luck for the next stronghold (could it be more sim and less RTS? Like an improved S2? D:), because the first ones were just beyond awsome...
Last: Caesar III soundtrack is amazing, but stronghold's one is just perfect, still listen to it while working. Great to know that the were done by the same guy. Brilliant!
PLEBS ARE NEEDED!!
I absolutely adored Caesar III as a child!! I played it for at least hundreds of hours on an old win 95 pc and it was the greatest. Dungeon Keeper, Civilization, Red Alert, Dune 2000, Age of Empires, I was so lucky to grow up during the golden age of RTS and some would say for shooters as well. Thanks for the interview Zakh & Mr. Bradbury!
C3 had a huge influence on me as a kid too , and a big part of my gaming life , even today i always have it installed and ready to play just in case . Thank you Simon for making this great game and thank you Zakh for making this interview .
Amazing interview with the Father of Impression Builder Style Games! Can't believe you managed to get him on an interview more than 20 years after it was released!! It's truly amazing!
absolutely wonderful interview, simon is a great developer from a great era and great studio. to hear of such pioneers and giants fills my heart
Thanks Simon, thousands of hours in long summer nights in my pentium 2 as a kid not only learning but having tons of fun.
Thanks for the interview. I played Caesar III back when it came out and was part of the early fan base at Heavengames as we worked to keep the excitement of it and other later games. These folks were so great at listening to us and adding new stuff. I even got to test later games. I think one revolutionary feature of Caesar III was the mapbuilder addition that allowed a significant level of fan created adventures that gave this game a great life. Another great feature was that the campaign challenge was almost perfect and so engaging. it really made playing the campaign a challenge, but not impossible. One of the best all around games in my opinion. I need to play Julius. I do play the original game occasionally for fun. On forced walker exploit. One map challenge I did for a Pharaoh contest was to see how many people just one water carrier to supply with a highest population win. I had a rough idea of what was possible, but what ended up as the winning design just blew even me away.
Awesome! Caesar II sparked a childhood obsession with history. Now I'm making a historical city builder! Brilliant interview, many thanks to Simon for taking the time.
WOW! An aged game but still effect many people . Also what a pleasure to talk with the Programmer of this game :)
This was such a good watch. The interview was very well done and I loved his tales and reactions :) I grew up with the Caesar, Zeus and co and loved them to pieces. The mention about the music was a great thing too, even decades later I still hum the music from Caesar 3, maybe I'll give the movie's soundtrack a try now, too!
I'm glad you enjoyed it! I've been wanting to ask a lot of these questions for ages and it's nice to get the chance.
Really great video, played these games since childhood, I have never thought I'd ever see a developer actually talk about them!
Very nice interview ! Shows how pre 3D dimentional isometric games still thriumph today ! Whats special, depth, customization, variety, digital release more comfort to play !
Lords Of the Realm II! Dungeon Keeper! Caesar III! Whoa, I play all of them to this day! Btw, the first person mode is extremely useful in DK1- it allows you to not only fight, but also take over an imp and build stuff, claim land or explore by yourself. It's an important game mechanic- experienced players use it to speedrun missions and trivialize combat, especially in the final missions.
Great point about the music; Soundtrack Rome 3 will forever be one of my favorite
Nice interview, nice to see and hear the creator of one of my favorite games of all time.
This is epic! So much love for this game and it still rocks today!
Loved this interview. I still play most of the city building games by Impressions.
Thank you so much for doing this interview. Insight into the dev process for games of this era is so rare and so much of this insight is amazingly valuable. Thank you for this game, and thank you for your thoughts!
Super video, thank you for this. I was hooked for the whole interview, and great with some gameplay in the background.
Thanks, I'm glad you enjoyed it!
Congratulations! Been following your channel for years and you even influenced me to buy and play Caesar 3 again for days so that I could apply what I learned from your videos. I'm happy for you that you got to interview Mr. Bradbury who's work had such a big influence on you! You conducted the interview amazingly and Mr. Bradbury seemed to enjoy it as well. Thank you!
Very interesting, I've consumed all of the interview in one go!
This is absolutely amazing; hopefully everyone comes on board and makes an even more improved Augustus, perhaps with added missions and lots of other buildings / mechanincs
I love this game so much :D . I've been playing Augustus like a madman lol. It really refreshed the game for me. Oh and btw Zakh, you should play C3 more often on your stream , there are tons and tons of custom maps that are really well made , some are easy some are very hard etc.
As one of my favorite game of my childhood I thank you for this video... Such an honor to see the creator of this masterpiece... Great interview, u should do more of these videos. Ty
Glad you enjoyed it! Unfortunately devs don't usually have the time to do interviews like this, especially for creators who aren't massive. I have a good relationship with Firefly because I did so much Caesar 3 and Stronghold on this channel and they got to know me through that.
Very interesting interview. Thank you Zakh and thank you Simon!
That interview was fascinating. It was really cool to see the creator of one of my favourite games from childhood speak about his creation.
Thank you both
I can't tell you how happy this interview made me! Thanks both!
This was awesome! Thanks guys for taking g the time to produce this and give us some great insights into a classic!! Still played!
Excellent interview! Congrats! It's really a rare opportunity to talk the creator of one of our favorite game.
These are my three major takes that I will try to "implement" in my dev! Thank you mister Simon!
- Sometimes "bugs" can be features and that's not a problem, if they improve the playability!
29:00 - About the force walker: "that's not by design... it's an edge case that can be used as an exploit.... but to be honest, I'm glad about that... a game with a few exploits it's a good thing! You as a player kind of want to exploit this, ..., you want to get the max of it, ...you want to know the tricks... I think keeping some of those exploit there is good!"
- Keep the interface/interaction simple and intuitive for the sake of fun, but don't downgrade the experience!
34:00 - About giving the player a way to control the walkers: "You don't really want to make it so... if you put something and the people have to use it... the people get the feel they have to use it"
- Quality is more important than quantity!
42:00 - About doing everything people "ask": "If you do everything, you end up kind of please some people but then you don't do everything well, that's the problem! It's better do do fewer things, but do them well or do them better and make something really good and strong"
Thank you Simon and Zakh for such an interesting interview :D
Thank you for doing this I always wanted to hear the developers thoughts about their games
I haven't played one of these games in a long time, but I was a big fan of all of them. This was interesting to listen to.
This is amazing. Thank you Zakh!
Glad you enjoyed it!
I remember playing this as a kid not really understanding what was going on. First Game i ever played, guess my father chose Well. Wouldnt be surprised if this Game shaped a tiny bit of the way I think even today. The guy is awesome!
LEGENDS . . . 🙏
Absolute legend!
Great interview. I had not watched Ben-Hur until a few years ago, and when I went back to Caesar III, it was the first thing I saw. Not only is the music similar, but most of the cinematics recreate scenes from the movie. Not that it was plagiarism or anything, just a great reference to give the game a cinematic feel
Thanks! Yeah once you put them side by side the influences are pretty clear.
He created a beautiful game...
Good stuff! Would love to watch more interviews!
Thanks I'm glad you enjoyed it!
Playing this game belongs to the best things in my life in my favourite year of 1997. Thank you forever!
Edit: oh, sorry, it was 1998. Another favourite year :))
Thank you for sharing this! If you had told 9 year old me that I would one day be able to hear from one of the creators of Caesar 3 myself, I wouldn't have believed you. So surreal to hear from him talk about the industry at the time as well as about a game that really did shape alot of my interests.
Serbia was bombed in '99 for 78 days over lies. And this game that i played all day long with my friend helped get trough hard times. Thank you creator :).
Very interesting, thank you!
Great! Thank you for the most amazing game!
Best game ever!!!!!!!!!!
An interview with the creator of my childhood memories.
Zakh, you are a great interviewer. Well done.
Looking forward to the next one!
thank you so much for making this, Zakh :) also, can we get 10 more hours with this guy please? :D
I've been scrolling yt for weeks now till I saw your comment at one of the vidIQ video.. I was left wondering if I can found Malaysian utuber around then here we go.. I'm trying to make some content in yt but I'm a newbie and the grind is real.. Congratz on your journey so far sir..
this is dope!
That awkward moment when you just can't end the conversation....
Great interview, Zakh.
man all your caesar 3 video are great but this one is SO GOOD
this is some high quality content to me
This interview is quality time, gg sir.
Just.. WOW!
If just current Firefly Studios Studios would reach Stronghold 1 and Caesar 3 level of quality. Hope they will improve and reclaim their full potential. Best Wishes, those where amazing games!
I really like this game
After watching this. Little would make me happier in the gaming sphere than, were it possible, if firefly could ever be in a position to acquire (or reacquire) the IP for Caesar. I’d trust these guys to pull the best bits from the entire series to make a fabulous Caesar V. Also, I’d love to see them also responsible for a C3 remaster, it would be beyond excellent!
Also, more Robert Euvino making more Roman music! 😁
Devolver Digital acquired Firefly, and Microsoft is buying Activision, so maybe in a year or two Devolver could talk to Microsoft about it haha
Legend. Please do more free maps, more bigger maps in other places (greek, partia). More bigger world map, more rival and allied cities, add the possibility to build colonies during a game (like zeus), more interaction with allied city (help to defend your city or attack other cities), conquer other cities in the name of Rome. More monuments, more tipes of troops. Take ideas from Emperor, Zeus, Pharaoh. I m a fan of all impressions city builders and expansions, i started to play Caesar III in the far 1998 and today Augustus is my favorite game !!! You are the number one. I will pay for a game like this 💎 fiero di essere italiano
you really put him against the ropes!
Haha I don't think it was that hard hitting, but they are questions I've always wanted to ask and it'll stop some criticism coming my way.
@@GamerZakh I liked the interview, it feels natural and interesting on both parts. I agree no hard hitting
That was awesome!
Thanks!
Awesome video, my guy! You going to play Farthest Frontier? It’s a blast!
Thanks! I have one video checking out Farthest Frontier. I can't commit to any playthroughs right now because I'm super busy this month, but might pick something up next month.
Outstanding!
I would’ve like to hear his thoughts on using Lion House and Gladiator School walkers to attack/destroy invading armies 🤣
Get him back on for a sneak peak at his new game for sure!!!!!
can't believe the game developers of our childhood are all Grandpa now
Omg this gonna be good
i love all the impressions games, except caesar 3. there was a mission which always fell apart after a couple hours of playtime. at some point i just emotionlessly took the disc out of the PC and broke it in half, just to protect myself from sinking more hours into this xD
Now you have to do an interview with Sid Meier himself!
Multiplayer mode with world map 🔥
it would be nice a multiplayer mode kind of PVP, like you would have a period of war years to attack your oponent, just crossed my mind
Nice interview. It would be interesting to hear something from Settlers 2 creators too.
14:44 oh someone who haven't played DK i see
first person mode is how you beat most of the maps. without it you are in a nightmare. spamming grenades behind the corner attacking the enemy and controlling imps to cut off the enemy on time and reinforce proper squares
well and then there's transfer creature and using a lvl 10 dragon to conquer most of the maps by solo rushing with self healing
Bro, why am I only seeing this now *sad noises
I hope you can somehow get the original pharaoh team on here🔥
I can only hope to speak to the Pharaoh lead, there are some big questions I'd ask if I ever got the chance.
As a kid Ceasar 3 was one of my 3 first self bought PC-games togethet with Trespasser Jurassic Park and Half Life. Trespasser and Half Life I bought used in a shabby computer store in our small German town.
I really played the shit out of Caesar 3 - almost 1000 hours id guess. The other games at that time like Testdrive, Tomb Raider and so on were no match to this jewel.
I am convinced to this day that this game at least partly shaped my mind.
As an adult maybe 10 years Iater I discovered and enjoyed Cleopatra and Zeus.
Im thrilled to learn about the modded versions of Ceasar 3. I was sceptical at first bcs of CesarIA and how it did not turn out to well, but I must admit that it really looks good.
EDIT: "Self bought" means my parents bought pirated (burned) games from the neighbours kid for me for christmas before. Of course I possesed NES and SEGA Master System II games before, but as you know that aint a comparison to late 90s PC-games.
Funfact: I spend my pocket money on PC-gaming magazines years before I had access to an computer, to be able to read about all this fabulous games and look at the pictures.
nice
If I could change the walkers in any way in Caesar 3 I would give the choice to the players to spend more money in wages to keep the walkers going longer and to pay to add more workers and carts to the warehouses/docks
Can you do an interview with Robert Euvino, the composer of the soundtrack?
i had so much fun designing a city because of the forced walker exploit xD
PLEASE give us CEASAR V